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Wild Ways: A Fifth Ecology for Metropolitan Los Angeles

Page 167

166

Roadkill is one of the most prevalent and unfortunate results of the conflict between the needs of humans and animals. The human need to get to where we are going safely and quickly has become a basic expectation and an ever expanding network of roads, highways and interchanges criss-crosses the continent, interrupting and fragmenting our landscapes — and with it, the territories and corridors of wildlife. Wild animals need to cross our roads in search of food, mates and shelter. Many are routinely struck and killed by vehicles in this most basic quest for survival. This is where the mission of the ARC partnership began — by engaging new thinking to design wildlife crossing structures that reconnect landscapes, safeguard wildlife populations, their habitats and ecosystems. Through creative collaboration across disciplines, we seek to address the challenge of designing for two very different clients — humans and wildlife — each with different needs and priorities, yet sharing one problem: the need for safe passage. The implementation of wildlife crossings across the landscape has the potential to reconnect wildlife habitats that have been split apart by our road systems; to reduce the deadly conflict between people and wildlife, and to bring human awareness and consideration to the habitats our roads interrupt and the animals that need these spaces. The role of design has been central in advancing innovative solutions for feasibility (to promote widespread implementation), adaptability (to respond to wildlife needs and reflect changing landscape conditions), and legibility (to communicate the function of wildlife crossings to motorists and enhance their connection to wildlife and wild spaces).


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Wild Ways: A Fifth Ecology for Metropolitan Los Angeles by Harvard GSD - Issuu